Every year as we get closer to Easter, this teaching gets a lot of views. I have made a few updates.

WHY DID PAUL TELL THE CORINTHIANS TO KEEP THE PASSOVER?

The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: Him God raised up the third day, and shewed him openly; Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick (living) and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. ~ Acts 10:36-43

This is the gospel message that Peter preached to Cornelius and his house. You may notice that it sounds quite different than many of the messages that are called the gospel in our time.

Did Peter just not know how to preach the gospel because it was so new, or have we strayed from the message that we ought to be preaching? Now, consider that Peter says that after Jesus was raised from the dead, he commanded those he ordained as witnesses of his resurrection to testify that he (Jesus) was ordained by God to be the judge of the living and the dead.

When was the last time you heard that preached?

Now, what’s missing in Peter’s sermon? Missing is the appeal to Cornelius that he needs to repent of his sin or he’s going to hell. Peter does not tell Cornelius that his sins have offended a Holy God but Jesus stepped in and took his place suffering the wrath of God upon himself so that Cornelius could go free. You won’t find the gospel preached in this manner anywhere in the book of Acts, and we have a lot of gospel sermons in the book of Acts.

Peter doesn’t emphasize Cornelius’s need for repentance because he is a sinner. Sometimes that may be necessary, but it wasn’t here because Cornelius was a devout man who feared God, and Peter acknowledges Cornelius works of righteousness, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. ~ v. 34-35

Now, I know that pointing this out may step on the theological toes of some, but we have to stop building theology with isolated proof-texts and calling such the gospel. Cornelius was not a totally depraved individual before hearing the gospel. He was a devout man who feared God, and as a result he prayed often, and gave much alms to the poor, but he did not yet know that Jesus is the Messiah. Cornelius was actually fasting when the angel of the Lord appeared to him and commanded him to send for Peter to tell him the words of salvation (v.30). 

In every gospel message in the book of Acts, the central focus of the message is that Jesus is the Messiah. It was not how much of a sinner the people were, or how to get to Heaven after death, or Jesus became their substitute taking the wrath of God which they deserved, etc. The message was that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah, and this is why the gospel that was preached in Acts includes his ministry, his sufferings, his resurrection, exaltation and his glory as the righteous one by whom God will judge the world.

I challenge you to examine Peter’s message to Cornelius because God sent Peter to tell him those words and those words are the framework of the gospel we ought to be preaching.

The problem with our modern gospel is that we have often lifted the message of the cross out of the context of the gospel which proclaims that Jesus is the Messiah and placed it into another context surrounded with our proof texts. The cross belongs in the context of the gospel as was preached in Acts, not in the context of TULIP or any other theology devised by man.

Over and over again, the appeal of scripture in the New Testament is that we believe that Jesus is the Son of God, the Christ, the one ordained of God, and the only mediator between God and man. The appeal of the New Testament is to point us to the man, Jesus Christ, and when the cross is kept within the framework of the revelation of the person of Jesus Christ, it is correctly understood.

Peter declares to Cornelius the message that God sent to the children of Israel by Jesus Christ, and God’s anointing of Jesus, and how God was with him, and how Jesus was killed by the people, and raised again by God, and how he communed with his disciples after his resurrection, and instructed them to testify that he is the one appointed by God as the judged of all. Regarding all this, Peter then says, To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. ~ v. 43

The gospel is the revelation of Jesus the Messiah, from the baptism of John until the judging of the living and the dead. Between his introduction by John the Baptist and the judging of the world he revealed God to us, he gave his life for us, he conquered death and rose victorious and was exalted at the right hand of God.

May we all hunger more for the authentic gospel of Christ Jesus our Lord!

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake. ~ John 14:6-11

Jesus makes it a point of emphasis that he is in the Father and the Father is in him. Did this cease to be true while Jesus was on the cross? If God turned his back on Jesus, and Jesus became separated from the Father as some teach, we would have no other conclusion. However, Jesus never taught such things. If we consider the words of Jesus, there was never a moment of separation from the Father. In John 13, Jesus refers to his death and resurrection as the Father glorifying him and he being glorified in the Father.

Therefore, when he (Judas) was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. ~ John 13:31-32

Now consider these words in view of what Jesus said in John 12. Speaking of his death and resurrection, Jesus says, Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Jesus’s prayer regarding the hour in which he would be betrayed, condemned, and crucified was that the Father glorify his name, to which the Father replied,  I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. ~ See John 12:27-28

In John 8 Jesus said to the Jews, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things. ~ v. 28

In John 10 Jesus says again to the Jews, Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father. ~ v.17-18

The cross was not the separation of Christ from God, but the greatest work of Christ expressing his oneness and union with the Father. Jesus repeatedly said, if you have seen me, you have seen the Father. Did this change when Jesus gave his life for us? No! There was no pause of the truth of Jesus’s oneness with the Father when he died on the cross. Jesus’s death (his laying down his life for us) was the greatest revelation of God’s love, mercy, and grace that humanity has ever seen.

One cannot declare that Jesus was separated from God in his death without also saying that Jesus (at that moment) was no longer in the Father, and the Father in him. In John’s gospel the hypostatic union of God and Christ is a point of emphasis from the beginning to the end. John begins his gospel by telling us

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me. And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. ~ John 1:1-2; 14-18

This theme of the oneness of the Father and the Son is repeated over and over again in John’s gospel and never is there a break in this union. When Jesus was crucified, he was temporarily forsaken by his disciples who feared for their lives, but never was he forsaken by his Father. Shortly before Jesus was arrested, he said the following to his disciples:

Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. ~ John 16:32

At no point did Jesus ever teach his disciples that he would be left alone and abandoned by God. As mentioned above, Jesus said to the Jews, when ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

Our Lord followed that statement by saying, And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.

When our understanding of the cross is formed by the whole counsel of scripture rather than random proof -texts, the volume of what Jesus was teaching and doing comes into focus. Things such as his washing his disciples feet suddenly make more sense. He did this just hours before he was to stand trial, and he tells his disciples the following:

Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before it come, that, when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. John 13:13-20 

When these words are considered in view of the moment in which they were spoken, we cannot but understand that Jesus was teaching his disciples what the cross was about. He was their Lord and Master, but he would lay down his life for them. The Master was the greatest servant of all! The love that Jesus would demonstrate in laying down his life would not only underscore who he was, but would be the lead example of how we, his followers, are to serve in his Kingdom.

This lesson must have really impacted Peter in particular. When Jesus began to wash Peter’s feet, Peter objected at first.

Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. ~ John 13:6-10

Notice that Jesus tells Peter, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. And when Jesus says to Peter If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me, Peter’s response was not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Peter wanted no part of missing out on Jesus, and it shows in his response, but Peter did not yet understand what his Lord was teaching him. I am certain that the lesson that Jesus taught his disciples that night is what shows up in Peter’s first epistle when he writes, For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: ~ 1 Peter 2:21

Jesus taught that we are to take up our cross and follow him, and as we do we follow in Christ footsteps. This is the lesson that Jesus was teaching his disciples. The cross does not lead into a place of abandonment, it leads to glory. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.